It seems like everything you find related to computers has to be payed for now. Its getting to be ridiculous. Free good software has become almost a foreign concept it seems. I remember not too long ago (please dont make me feel old) that programmers gave out most of their software for free and the only programs that you had to pay for were from the major software corporations, and people stuck to earning money with their JOBS. But now if Joe Schmoe takes 5 minutes to write a PoS tic-tac-toe knock off in Visual DEFY (do everything for you) you have to download a 10 day tryout of it where you can only use /'s and half Os until you buy the retail for 99cent? I guess theres nothing we can really do about it but I just felt like ranting after my recent search for some extra fonts.
I went looking for a good pack of fonts to add to my collection since I reinstalled windows and had very few. I initially searched for "download fonts" only to discover that now you had to pay for 90% of the fonts online. Ok. So I had to change my search to "download free fonts" only to find that most of the "free" sites just linked to other sites where you had to pay! There were even some site charging almost $200 for their font packs. I mean come on its just a font. I remember doing the same search about 5 years ago and not only were all of them free but people were practically begging for you to download their free software or fonts. I had the same problem when I searched for some free online strategy or multiplayer games. Haha. With the exception of the highly rare open beta, suffice it to say, not gonna happen. I've also noticed lately that alot of the software that used to be free, are no longer this way with the exception of their trail versions, try versions, and the oh so popular adware versions. Some good examples of this: Winzip, Winamp, CPUCool, AIM (yup it has adware), DeadAIM, WeatherBug (haha), 3dMark, FilePlanet, etc etc etc.
I definitly understand people wanting to profit from their talents (I sure wouldnt mind a penny or two for my artistic exploits). But doesnt it seem like its going a bit far?
I went looking for a good pack of fonts to add to my collection since I reinstalled windows and had very few. I initially searched for "download fonts" only to discover that now you had to pay for 90% of the fonts online. Ok. So I had to change my search to "download free fonts" only to find that most of the "free" sites just linked to other sites where you had to pay! There were even some site charging almost $200 for their font packs. I mean come on its just a font. I remember doing the same search about 5 years ago and not only were all of them free but people were practically begging for you to download their free software or fonts. I had the same problem when I searched for some free online strategy or multiplayer games. Haha. With the exception of the highly rare open beta, suffice it to say, not gonna happen. I've also noticed lately that alot of the software that used to be free, are no longer this way with the exception of their trail versions, try versions, and the oh so popular adware versions. Some good examples of this: Winzip, Winamp, CPUCool, AIM (yup it has adware), DeadAIM, WeatherBug (haha), 3dMark, FilePlanet, etc etc etc.
I definitly understand people wanting to profit from their talents (I sure wouldnt mind a penny or two for my artistic exploits). But doesnt it seem like its going a bit far?